Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Overwhelming summer, with a few gems...

Apologies for my long absence, but it has been a rather overwhelming summer.

I do tend to get a slight case of the blues in July, with so much to do: the weeds, the slugs, the hares, the re-sowing, clipping back, tying up, watering, fertilizing, etc etc. and this year was no exception.

Also, with everyone being on holiday, life tends to move outdoors, and consequently away from the computer...

We also painted the house this year, which really uglified the flowerbeds, so I wasn't particularly inspired to post lots of pretty photos.

Trampled flowerbeds.

But, as most gardeners say, "It'll be lovely next year..."

There have been a few gems though:

Rose No. 1, Queen Elizabeth, in bloom.

A few great harvests, in particular yummy cucumbers and an endless supply of rocket.

The magnificent bouquet of Musk Mallow flowers that had to be
removed from the flowerbeds so we could paint the house.

Lots and lots and lots of herbs...

Rose No. 4, New Dawn, being trained up an old apple tree.

Rose No. 3, Bonica, in bloom.

An endless supply of Sweet Peas filling my bathroom with perfume.

A quick mention of Rose No. 2, Fairy, which has spread madly and wildly in one of the flowerbeds. I don't have a photo of it unfortunately, and I would pop out and take a picture if the heavens had not completely opened while writing this post... It is absolutely TIPPING it down! So you'll have to take my word for it...

Anyway, I feel I must also show you a little nastiness.... so please look away now if you are faint-hearted...

...

..

...

..

...

..

One of many slug collections... BLEUGH!!

Sorry to end on such a yucky note, but this was very much a part of my 2012 summer, and so had to be shared.

4 comments:

Glad you warned us about that last photo, Laura! Yikes! I now feel that I've been let off lightly in the slug wars as I haven't had that many! You are SO lucky to have beautiful sweet peas, mine just didn't happen this year as I didn't plant them out early enough. Next year I'm going to concentrate more on flowers than veg so I hope to have some then. Lovely haul of herbs by the way!

Hi Caro! Thanks for leaving a note - sorry for the very late reply :O Yes it's been a fantastic year for slugs and snails!! They've been an absolute nightmare this year, ploughing through everything in no time. I'm particularly upset about my leeks, which never got past 1cm stage - I never knew how much slugs like onions!! >(

Just found your blog from Caro's (above) blog. Oh my that bucket of slugs is disgusting. Dare I ask what their fate was?

My sweet peas have only started to get going in the last month. I live in Wales and we've had so much rain that they've really struggled. But at last they are producing enough for me to pick a bunch every couple of days. looking forward to reading about your gardening life in Sweden. WW

About Me

Having been city dwellers most of our lives, the move to the countryside in the autumn of 2008 came as a bit of shock to my husband and I. Four years on and we're loving every minute. I've swapped my heels for Hunters and the take out menus for packets of seeds. I'm going to try and use this blog as a diary and a record of everything that goes on out here. I should perhaps add that I am English (married to a Swede - not of the vegetable variety), which is why I blog in English...